| May 31, 2020 | | 8 min read

Wield Your Digital Marketing Bible to Build Authority and Generate Leads

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Those of you who know me well, know that I always say lead generation is one of the easiest problems to solve. In fact, if handled correctly, it’s a step-by-step process that starts with deciphering your lighthouse client and ultimately ends with having a thriving business.

Recommended Reading: How to Generate Leads Using the Lighthouse Client Strategy

The key, however, is to master all the steps that come in between. Therefore, once you know who your lighthouse client is, it’s time to build the authority of your digital marketing agency.

So, how do you do that? What do you do to make your agency stand apart from the competition? Is there something that can make customers choose your products over others?

While creating content that ticks the boxes of the three components of authority is one way to ace that test, I believe that codifying your knowledge and turning your years of expertise into a digital marketing bible is a great way for agencies to build authority and scale their business.

Skip the reading and download the checklist to create your digital marketing bible!

Your marketing bible helps build authority

The beauty of creating a digital marketing bible, which contains all of your marketing knowledge, is that it helps you and your agency build authority and drive sales even in tough times.

When I say create a digital marketing bible, it isn’t something that is complicated. It’s literally a book that’s in your name and something that helps you establish credibility with your customers.

For example, let’s say that you’re in the market looking for a consultant to settle a legal dispute. Whose advice would you rather pay for? Someone who says that they’ve been practicing for years or someone who says the same thing but also has written many acclaimed law books?

Chances are high that you would subconsciously be drawn towards hiring the latter. Similarly, if you, as an agency owner, have a book with your domain knowledge out in the market, it helps you to break that initial barrier that potential clients might have when it comes to contacting you.

Having a digital marketing bible helps you overcome the classic chicken or egg question. In this case, however, that question is what comes first? Are you getting clients first and then making them trust you or are you getting people to trust you first and then making them your clients?

Even though you can establish trust by niching down and targeting only your lighthouse clients, I believe that starting by creating a book that encapsulates your knowledge, your processes, and your packages together will go a long way to set the course right for your agency to grow.

Don’t know where to start creating your marketing bible? Download the checklist!

Systematize your digital marketing process

Before you embark upon the journey to create your digital marketing bible, it’s imperative that you systematize your marketing processes and have a plan in mind as to how you’ll use it.

For instance, a lot of people can come out with books that portray the story of their lives. However, the key is to be able to utilize the book and bring in more customers at the end of the day. Therefore, a great way to do that is to turn segments of your marketing bible into courses.

The benefit of turning your marketing knowledge into a course is that the course acts like a checklist. It’s like a set of tasks that your potential customers do sequentially and get value from. And once they’re done taking the course, you can make the sale by offering them a package.

The reason why the sale has to come at the end is because you need to lead with value. You need to show people how to handle a certain marketing concept before moving in to close them.

More often than not, in situations like these, the potential customer would end up coming on board with your agency because they would rather have the experts (someone who’s established themselves) handle their marketing instead of getting their hands dirty themselves.

At this point, while you’re making the sale, you can also provide the potential customers with more value by running a quick Snapshot Report and giving them a digital audit of their business.

The best part about this digital audit is that it’s white-labelable, which means depending on your lighthouse client you can rebrand it in any way you deem necessary. Maybe you service the aviation industry predominantly, in which case you can refer to it as your digital flight plan.

Then, once you have the audit and the potential customer has the understanding of what your agency does, move in for the close and drive your package, thereby bringing them on board.

Grab the checklist for a step-by-step process to create your marketing bible!

How to make your courses stand out

The most effective way to make your digital marketing courses stand out is to incorporate the learn, do, teach philosophy. What this means is that if you’re competent with a task because you’ve done it multiple times before, take that knowledge and convert it into a course for others.

It’s about documenting your strategies, processes, and marketing secrets, while at the same time building a course that would teach your potential customers how to benefit from them.

Now, when I say course, I don’t mean it to be something that’s extensive and very complicated. A good quality course can also be just a 15-minute video recording of you explaining a concept.

The victory lies in the simplicity as people are drawn towards courses that give them the answers to the questions without beating around the bush. It’s simply telling people how to do something. You can maximise the value, however, by ensuring that the course is interactive.

Another great way to make your courses stand out is to offer a certification upon completion. For example, one of the key proponents for the Conquer Local Academy is that agencies can position themselves as digital marketing experts once they complete the on-demand training.

An advantage of offering a certification upon completion of a course is that it ties in really well with the packages you offer. Because anyone who decides to take your course, with an aim to be certified, would have headed into it because they had some inclination towards your agency.

If I had to draw a parallel, I would say that it’s similar to people enrolling in medical school. Why would anyone go through all the education and not be expecting to get something in the end?

In your case, where people sign up to take a course based off of your digital marketing bible, you have a more than probable chance to sell them your packages related to the course topics.

Join the Conquer Local Academy and get certified as a digital marketing expert!

Engagement and attention drive revenue

The advantages of providing engaging courses, built from your digital marketing bible, far outweigh the negatives of the time, effort, and resources you might put towards building them.

For example, when you provide people with value by offering them free courses on topics they want to educate themselves on, you’re more likely to convert them to buy your services.

That’s why the learn, do, teach philosophy is extremely important because it shows people how to do something through examples. You’re not just providing them with articles and telling them to do something, but you’re showing them how to do it through means of an interactive course.

It’s like learning how to fix your car by watching a video that a local mechanic made for you while working on another car. The video acts like a course and once you’ve watched it, you can either fix your car yourself or contact the mechanic to fix it for you since they have the expertise.

This is how you're going to drive clients, even if you don't have any other clients, because it's the engagement that drives revenue and the attention you provide that drives monetization.

Create your digital marketing bible by utilizing the steps outlined in the checklist!

The importance of guides to create structure

While building your digital marketing bible, and then subsequently converting parts of it into courses, it’s a good practice to abide by your brand guidelines and have a structured approach.

When I say brand guidelines, it’s not just the logo or colour of the font that I’m talking about. It’s also the organization of the content that you would be using to create those documents.

For example, if one of the courses that you’re creating is a 15-minute video, then maybe it’s a good idea to also have an accompanying blog post with it that explains the course content. Or maybe you feel that instead of writing a blog, a deck with screenshots would be more beneficial.

Furthermore, it’s also advisable to jot down pointers related to technical aspects regarding the various social media platforms. These can include intricacies like suitable formats, sizes, etc.

Whatever the case may be, it’s highly recommended that digital marketing agencies outline those guidelines in a document for a smoother and more efficient operational process.

Download the checklist and start building your digital marketing bible today!

Conclusion

Taking the first step towards creating your digital marketing bible can be tough if you feel that you don’t have the knowledge, authority, or energy to speak and write about a marketing topic.

Furthermore, some marketing agency owners I’ve talked to also feel that since the market is already flooded with many existing books and courses, theirs would just get lost in the shuffle.

However, even though there might be multiple books and courses on the same topic out in the market, there will definitely be a segment of the audience that would prefer to hear your voice. There would be people who would want to uniquely connect with you and take your courses.

So, don’t worry about the unknown and get started right now by codifying your marketing knowledge. Use our step-by-step checklist and create your digital marketing bible.

About the Author

Dennis Yu is the inventor of the 9 Triangles framework. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, LA Times, National Public Radio, TechCrunch, Fox News, CBS Evening News and is co-author of Facebook Nation – a textbook taught in over 700 colleges and universities.

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